Ulterior Motives
by ClosetFMAfan
Summary: Al had always been attracted to the idea of other people thinking that his motives behind what was now being hailed as his greatest achievement were completely honorable. The truth was far less flattering. AlMei Week.


**ALMEI WEEK WHOOOOOOOOOOOOO! This one is actually kinda a fanfiction on my own fanfiction... Most of the other prompts are not actually going to follow the timeline of my AlMei series. I just couldn't come up with anything else for this prompt.**

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Ambassador Alphonse Elric had been dating Prince Mei Chang for a month before he ceased to be able to sleep.

Early mornings would find him tangled in the soft Xingese sheets, smelling of sweat and fear. The first week or so of waking up far earlier than his normal time, he had no idea what caused him to wake like this. He couldn't recall a single dream or nightmare from the night. Yet he always found himself in that position in the morning. It baffled him until the day they were walking in the Imperial gardens and a shower of blossoms fell from the tree they were walking under. The light pink flower petals fell around her and she smiled, laughed slightly, swatting them away from her face. Al was laughing with her until something about the image appeared so clearly in his mind, had he been inclined to believe in God, he would have claimed it was divine revelation.

_Mei laughing as the blossoms fell around her face, but not as she was now. She was older, in her late twenties or so. Her hair was pulled back completely and her eyes sparkled happily. The black haired toddler in her arms lifted his pudgy arms up and tried to grab at the petals, and when he finally captured one he showed it proudly to his mother—for the toddler could only be Mei's child. Then he turned his gold eyes to Al and happily proclaimed in Amestrian "Look what I caught Daddy!"_

Mei had looked at him oddly as he stared at her, before asking him if something was wrong. He quickly shook his head and as he watched a whole blossom fell from the tree. He gently caught it in one hand and presented it to her. She blushed and they continued on their walk.

The next morning, when he woke up, his nightmare was clear.

_Instead of a happy, laughing Mei, she stood alone in the garden, looking forlornly at the blossoms. As he watched, a tear fell from the corner of her eye onto the paper she was holding. A letter. A letter from him._

_Dear Mei,_

_I'm sorry that I had to tell you in a letter. I wish from the depths of my heart that I could have the courage to face you in person, but I do not. I know that if I were to look in your eyes, my heart would break and I would fear I would never be able to reassemble the pieces. The pain of trying to be together, knowing that we can never truly be together is too much for me anymore. You are a Princess, you cannot abandon your country and your duty to be with me, and I would never be welcome in my country again if I were to leave it for you. I remember the hours we spent talking about our lives in the futures. The travel, the knowledge, the people, the family, the children. Thinking about it now sends stabs of pain throughout my soul, knowing that none of it will ever happen._

_It will, though. But not with each other._

_I have never spoken truer words than these here. I am sorry._

_I love you._

_Alphonse_

That was the first morning Al found himself in the library, researching Xingese law. He poured through every book he could find on it, current, old, the making of it.

The more he researched relations between the two countries of Xing and Amestris, the more he realized how little structure there was between their interactions. There was veritably none. With the desert and both countries long histories of war, ties between them had never been strong.

Al made it his project in life to change this.

And if the main thought that fueled him as the hours passed in the library and little progress was made was the image of Mei alone reading his letter, well, that was his business wasn't it?

When he introduced the idea to Mei, he wondered if she actually understood his true motives behind the treaty's inception. He didn't think so. That had been one of his fears about introducing the idea to her. That she would be able to spot his intentions and think it too forward. That was why he presented the bulk of the other benefits of the document to her instead of the one that really mattered to him.

The same held true for when he presented the ideas to anyone else from then on. Ling was the only one who seemed to catch the paragraph he made sure in insert in the draft, but politely ignored it with a grin. It went unnoticed from then on. Al almost felt dirty, twisting the document for his own benefit, but then he would remind himself that it really was an important issue to be addressed. With these hopefully tighter ties, it was very possible that there would be some interracial marriages popping up and they would need a way to deal with them properly!

If he intended the very first marriage under the new treaty to be his own, well, that was his business wasn't it?

Years later, when his hair was turning grey and he couldn't walk quite the same way anymore, and the grandchildren would swarm around his knee and ask him to tell them stories about anything to everything, he read the first of many books to be written about him.

The man who had written it was as young as he was when he first got the idea to create a treaty to bind the two nations he had called home together. He got most of his information wrong of course, which could only be expected. Which was only to be hoped, in reality. The book had six chapters on his contributions to the world alone, one of which was dedicated completely to the Elric Treaty.

"Later, Elric would claim that the inspiration for the treaty came mainly from his own experiences and the experiences he witnessed during his involvement with the Coup of 1915 and his time in Xing. He also did admit to being influenced a great deal by the Princess Mei Chang, Savior of the Changs, his alkahestry teacher, and later his wife as he proposed to her the day of the treaty's signing. It is unknown to what degree he planned the proposal, as there just so happened to be a paragraph in the treaty addressing their exact situation."

Alphonse Elric, age 72, leaned back in his chair and laughed. When his wife came out of the kitchen carrying a tray of tea and set it down on the table, pushing his feet off it in the process, and asked him what was so funny, he merely handed her the book and grinned while she read the paragraph.

"How much of that was planned?"

Al was grinning as he grabbed his cup and lifted it to his lips. After a long draught from the cup, he finally answered his wife.

"I will not lie to you, my darling, but I like the idea of my motives being declared completely honorary. I wrote the treaty to make sure we could be married. The rest just came with the package."

"Alphonse Elric! Who knew you could be so sneaky?"

"You did. It's not why you married me?"

"I married you for your kindness and intelligence. The rest just came with the package."


End file.
